My coach recently invited her clients to ask a different kind of “what if” question. Mostly, she said, our “what if”ing is from a negative mindset — What if there’s not enough time for me? What if my child doesn’t keep up in...

I started this series with Self-care for Parents, a post that defined parental self-care and suggested ideas for assessing how attentive you are to caring for your needs. In the second post, What difference does parental self-care make?, I wrote about how taking care...

“There’s this perception that if you worry a lot and if you look really busy and stressed out then you’ll be more successful.” ~Nancy Mayer I’m not sure how parents make it through that first year with a newborn. Even in homes where...

Problem. Issue. Challenge. Call them what you will, all parents face them. Ultimately, all parents also want to not be facing them. Problem solving Our culture, and most of our own backgrounds and experience tell us to spot the problem (usually “out...

In my post Are you too helpful with your children? I wrote about how we can inadvertently reinforce beliefs of helplessness when we’re too quick to step in and give our children a hand. For some parents, or for some of us at different times, however, we hinder...

Shonnie Lavender

Shonnie Lavender inspires and empowers conscious parents to create connected, respectful, and thriving families by eliminating fear-based parenting methods still commonly in use today. A contributor to Huffington Post and Elephant Journal, Shonnie has appeared on numerous podcasts and radio. Professionally she holds a Masters Degree, did her coach training at CoachU, and received her coaching accreditation through the International Coach Federation. You can find Shonnie on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.